MANILA, 19 April — If you can’t help us, please don’t hurt us.
This was the message of Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner Jun Bernardino to the Senate which is planning to launch an inquiry on the legitimacy of Fil-foreign players bound for the Asian Games in Pusan, South Korea, this September.
Bernardino expressed reservations over the reported inquiry as he threatened to halt the preparations of the national team bound for Pusan if the Senate pushes through with their plan.
Earlier, the PBA said the campaign to reclaim the basketball throne should not be spoiled by debates on race or personalities, particularly on the issue of Fil-foreign players.
The PBA said the pro league’s foremost concern right now is to determine the deserving players who would form the national team.
And the coaching staff aims to put together the best team possible for hostilities in Pusan, a goal it plans to pursue without prejudice to who ends up making the squad.
A Senate inquiry on Fil-foreign players, Bernardino pointed out, will only jeopardize the country’s preparations for the quadrennial games which also serves as an Olympic qualifier.
If ever it pushes through, according to Bernardino, it could deal a severe blow to the country’s ambitious and yet another determined bid to regain Asian basketball supremacy.
He explained the holding of the inquiry was “untimely” and it would only seriously impair the timetable set by the national team. The national training pool is currently in the midst of preparations. According to Bernardino, the lawmakers must suffer the consequences of such an act that would have far-reaching complications.
“If they want to investigate, then fine. We will stop the training of the national team and put down everything until they finish their investigation,” said Bernardino.
The PBA top honcho said the reported Senate move is not only aimed at Fil-foreign players in the national team. Twelve of the 27 players in the candidates’ pool are Fil-foreign players, and some of them, like Eric Menk, Paul Asi Taulava and Danny Seigle, are considered shoo-ins to the 15-man team which head coach Jong Uichico will name after the ongoing Governor’s Cup.
Other half-bred Filipino players in the national training pool are Ali Peek, Chris Jackson, Rafi Reavis, Jimmy Alapag, Davonn Harp, Mick Pennisi, Andy Seigle, Rudy Hatfield and Noy Castillo.
The Fil-foreign players, obviously, are oozing with height, heft, speed and talent giving the Philippines the best chance ever of beating the opposition in Pusan, most notably China. And with most of the Filipino players out with various injuries, focus will be on the Fil-foreign players who, many believe, will outnumber the pure local talent in the Philippine team.
Bernardino said these Fil-foreign players were allowed to play in the PBA, or the national team only after being getting clearance from the Immigration and Justice Department. He said the fact that these Fil-foreigners were cleared by the Justice Department before they were allowed to play in the pro league showed this issue has already been properly addressed, and another investigation at this time will only be counter-productive.
“Personally, I think we should help our players instead of creating frictions,” said Bernardino. “The problem is that there are Filipinos who seem to have the penchant for trying to deter an athlete or any team in their preparations for a (particular) quest. Instead of helping our Asiad quest, some Filipinos are even trying to make it hard for us.”
“These people really don’t seem to understand basketball. Let us just be judged by our performances at the end of the day,” said Bernardino. “The members of the team are basically achieving what they wanted to do from the start. The coaching staff has already laid down the basis for the evaluation and after the Governor’s Cup, the final composition of the team will be known.”
He added the Nationals, set to be pruned down to 15 from present roster of 27 players at the end of the Governor’s Cup, are still what the PBA wants them to be because they are still trying to re-orient themselves into something new.
But there are a lot of positive signs, according to Bernardino, and one of them is that these players trying their very best to make it to the team that will try to improve on the country’s bronze-medal finish in the 1998 Bangkok Asiad.
Although the performance of the two training teams in the Governor’s Cup has invited flak from critics, Bernardino reiterated his support to the coaching staff led by Uichico.
He said the national training pool is on track in its bid to end four decades of futility in the Asian Games. It has long been an obsession for the Filipinos to win back the Asian basketball gold the country last won in 1962 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Philippines won the inaugural edition of the games in 1951 in New Delhi, India. It also reigned supreme in 1954 in Manila and in 1958 in Tokyo, Japan.
“Coach Jong and his assistants have the sole responsibility to pick the roster. That’s the agreement. Let us be judged by our performances at the end of the day. Everything is going according to plans,” added Bernardino, who urged the public to rally behind the PBA’s cause, that is to bring the basketball gold back to the country.
The possibility of seeing predominantly Fil-foreign players forming the fourth team of professional cagers to be sent to the quadrennial games has reportedly triggered an uproar within the league, more so from homegrown talent who never even made the candidates’ pool.
The scorching debate over the issue of race or personalities may even touch down the Senate after some players sought the help of Sen. Robert Barbers, chairman of the Senate Committee on games, amusement and sports who they hope would launch a probe on these players.
Sen. Barbers is reportedly set to question the formation of the Asian Games squad in the sense that Fil-foreign players are being favored over pure local talents.
League sources said Filipino players sought the help of Sen. Barbers regarding the issue, with players from at least two teams — FedEx and Purefoods — having affixed their signatures on the plan which, they hope, could also minimize the future entry of more Fil-foreign players in the PBA.
Some players have reportedly tried to drum up the support of the league’s homegrown players in a signature campaign being covertly pushed through. A big percentage of the players have already signed the manifesto.
Such an inquiry, if it materializes, may focus on the legitimacy of the citizenship papers of majority of these Fil-foreign players. The league said it has done everything it could to address lingering doubts on the legitimacy of these players’ claim to Filipino citizenship, enforcing strict rules that require no less than a Department of Justice affirmation for entry in the league.
“As far as we are concerned, all Fil-foreign players in the PBA are certified Filipinos,” a PBA statement said. “Their citizenship has been affirmed and confirmed by no less than the justice department. Who are we to question the DoJ?”
The citizenship of all Fil-Am candidates to the Asiad team has been affirmed by the DoJ and, as such, they should be accorded the same rights as any citizen in this country, the PBA said.
Prior to the national training teams’ stint in the Governor’s Cup, the league also advised Fil-foreign players with no prior stint in the PBA to secure affirmations of their citizenship from the DoJ before being allowed to play.
Three players who joined the tryouts last December were denied the chance to represent the Philippines in the Asian Games after they failed to get the DoJ approval. Among them were Chris Clay and Jeffrey Flowers of the MBA, and Mike Cortez of La Salle.
“We’re notlooking at these players as simply Fil- foreign players. They are Filipinos. They’ve been cleared by the DoJ and therefore, they enjoy the right of every other Filipino next door.
“Whether you’re a Fil-American, Fil-Tongan, Fil-Japanese or whatever, you cannot play in the PBA, much more represent the country in international competitions, if you’re not cleared by the DoJ,” the statement said. “It’s not supposed to be the personality of the player but his talent. Twelve of the 27 remaining hopefuls are Fil-foreign players but there will be homegrown talents that are also shoo-ins for the national team.”
Bernardino admitted that capturing the regional gold is an uphill climb as he picked defending champion China, host Korea and Lebanon as the country’s fiercest rivals. Two Chinese giants — Wang Zhizhi and Menk Batere — who are presently seeing action with the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets, respectively, will lead China’s bid to keep their regional supremacy.
The South Koreans, of course, will be enjoying the luxury of home-court advantage, and that would be a “tall order”, according to Bernardino. Lebanon, on the other hand, will be the newest threat considering that the team will be backstopped by two Lebanese-American players. Currently, Lebanon is ranked second in Asia.
Lebanon finished behind perennial champion China in the ABC with a team backstopped by two Lebanese-Americans, Joseph William Vogel and Richard Hallet. Vogel is a 6-foot-11, 245-pound center who played for Lebanon during the 1999 McDonalds Championships won by the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Earlier, former two-time FIBA president Gonzalo “Lito” Puyat called on the PBA to form the national team immediately. Puyat, an acknowledged basketball scholar, warned the PBA that time was running out, with only less than six months left for the national team to play together as one competitive team.
“If we hope to do better than the past Asian Games” said Puyat, “then the PBA needs to form the national team immediately.”
Six months is not enough time considering that one team is yet to be culled from Hapee-RP and Selecta-RP, two national candidates teams participating in the Governor’s Cup.
“Opposition in Pusan will be very tough,” Puyat warned. “If our goal is to win back the Asiad gold, coach Jong Uichico and his assistants have to form the team right away rather than make them play as two teams in the ongoing PBA tournament.”
Ironically, both candidates teams in the Governor’s Cup are hardly making their presence felt, struggling just to make it to the top four. Since the PBA agreed to take responsibility in forming the Philippine team to the Asian Games in 1990, the country’s best achievement so far was a silver medal in Beijing in the same year.
Robert “Sonny” Jaworski, now a senator, coached an all-star team to the silver medal behind powerhouse China.
The Centennial Team, coached by Tim Cone, finished third in Bangkok in 1998. In the Hiroshima edition of the games in 1994, the Norman Black-mentored Philippine team finished fourth.
“They should form the team immediately,” said Puyat while recalling the one key factor, other than the home court advantage, that enabled the Filipino cagers to win the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) title in 1973. He noted that it took one year for the nationals to play together before they claimed the 1973 ABC crown in Manila.
Puyat, who was then the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) president, tapped the late Tito Eduque as head coach and sportsman Dante Silverio as team manager. Eduque and Silverio formed the 15-man national team that included three alternates.
For the record, the shortest preparation for the Philippine team was in 1990 when national coach Robert Jaworski only had a month for the formation before the Beijing tournament.
The Philippine Centennial team, handled by Alaska coach Tim Cone in 1998, played against US NCAA teams and even won the Jones Cup crown before settling for third place in the Bangkok joust. Puyat admitted that China is not the only team the Philippines has to worry about in Pusan.
“Lebanon will be tough to beat. And so are Korea, Japan and other Middle East countries,” he said.
